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Pakistani Taliban want peace deal

Jason Burke

THE Taliban in Pakistan have said they want to negotiate a ceasefire, in a video statement by their leader, Hakimullah Mehsud.

The video, delivered to Reuters in Pakistan on Friday, is the latest in a series of statements in recent days stating that the group want a peace deal - though they refuse to disarm.

Military and civilian authorities in Pakistan have repeatedly reached agreements with militants, most of which were short lived.

Experts have dismissed the latest statements as ''posturing''. Imtiaz Gul, an Islamabad-based author and expert, said the Taliban were mounting an ''orchestrated campaign to improve [their] image'' following three high-profile attacks in Peshawar.

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This month several suicide bombers struck at the northern city's airport, a senior provincial politician was killed in a bombing, and on Thursday 22 paramilitary soldiers were kidnapped.

''They feel they have the upper hand. They have been trying to improve their image for some time through less indiscriminate attacks on ordinary people and more targeted assassinations or attacks on the police, paramilitary [forces] or politicians,'' Mr Gul said.

The Taliban are a coalition of groups founded in 2007 who have since been responsible for the deaths of thousands of Pakistani civilians, police and servicemen.

They have been linked to at least two international terrorist plots but have yet to show any serious commitment to exporting militancy beyond their immediate neighbourhood.

In a letter distributed to local news media this week, another commander of the Taliban demanded that Pakistan rewrite its laws and constitution to conform with Islamic law, break its unpopular alliance with the United States, stop interfering in the war in Afghanistan, and instead focus on India to seek revenge for Pakistan's defeat in the 1971 war with its neighbour. The demands seemed designed to appeal to popular local sentiment.

There is increasing evidence that the Taliban's hold on communities along Pakistan's border with Afghanistan has weakened since the murder of elders, teachers and health workers. Their extreme violence has revolted many ordinary Pakistanis.

However, senior police officials in Pakistan say the Taliban retain a network of active militants and supporters around the country, despite pressure from counter-terrorism agencies and the army, and attacks from US drones.

In the Punjab, the eastern province, the movement had been able to forge ad-hoc links with fragmented sectarian groups or freelance operators who had split away from bigger organisations that were under close watch by intelligence agencies, the officials said.

There was no immediate response from Pakistani authorities to the video.

Mehsud blamed the Pakistani government for the violence along the frontier with Afghanistan, and said his movement would follow the strategic lead of the Afghan Taliban after most NATO troops withdrew from the neighbouring country in 2014.

He reaffirmed his organisation's support for al-Qaeda, much of whose remaining senior leadership is believed to be in Pakistan.

''We are Afghan Taliban and Afghan Taliban are us,'' he said. ''We are with them and al-Qaeda. We are even willing to get our heads cut off for al-Qaeda.''

Western intelligence experts say the exact nature of the movement's relationship with the group founded by Osama bin Laden in the 1980s is unclear, but unlikely to be as close as Mehsud claims, with links based on individual relationships between senior militants rather than organisational alliances. But any increased involvement of the Pakistani militants in Afghanistan or with international networks would complicate Western strategy in the region. GUARDIAN